Ravens TE Isaiah Likely was the star of Thursday night's opener vs. the Chiefs. The third-year TE hauled in nine of 12 targets for 111 yards and a score. The targets, catches, and yards all led the team. Likely was especially busy in the fourth quarter, tallying five catches for 73 yards and his TD on an impressive 49-yard catch-and-run. He nearly had a bigger night, catching what appeared to be a game-tying 10-yard score as time expired. But replay revealed that Likely's toe was an inch out of bounds.
Likely was a buzzy player this summer, but no one could have seen this coming. He looked liked Baltimore's best pass-catcher on Thursday night and had the usage to match. Likely drew a big 29% target share. And, most importantly, he ran a route on 69% of pass plays. That's slightly lower than a typical top-12 fantasy TE -- but a huge improvement over Likely's playing time alongside TE Mark Andrews last year.
Baltimore deployed two TEs on 53% of their offensive snaps in Kansas City and lined Likely up all over the field:
Likely certainly benefitted from trailing game script. QB Lamar Jackson threw 41 passes after averaging 28.6 per game last year. And it'll be tough for Likely to match this type of target share on this level of playing time.
But it's plenty possible that his playing time grows after such a strong performance. At minimum, he looks like a high-end TE2 going forward. And he might just work his way into the position's top 12.
Likely's big night came at the expense of TE Mark Andrews, who caught just two of two targets for 14 yards. His playing time remained fine, though: A 74% snap rate and 75% route rate. For comparison, he registered an 86% route rate in his nine healthy games last year.
Andrews definitely didn't look as dynamic as Likely in Kansas City, but it's also worth remembering that he missed over two weeks in August after being involved in a car accident. That might have been a factor.
Expect to see Andrews fall in next week's updated rest-of-season rankings. But he'll remain safely inside the top-10 and is still a better fantasy bet than Likely for now.
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